Maria Torero plays with some of the 175 cats with leukemia in her Lima apartment.

Maria Torero plays with some of the 175 cats with leukemia in her Lima apartment.

Photo: Martin Mejia, Associated Press

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Torero's son Fabian, 7, plays with hospice cats.

Torero's son Fabian, 7, plays with hospice cats.

Photo: Martin Mejia, Associated Press

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A group of sick felines rests in storage baskets.

A group of sick felines rests in storage baskets.

Photo: Martin Mejia, Associated Press

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Peru's feline hospice

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Maria Torero lavishes love on slowly dying cats - 175 of them at last count. The 45-year-old nurse has turned her eight-room Lima apartment into a hospice for cats with feline leukemia, which includes scores of feeding dishes and some two dozen litter boxes. For five years, she has cared for animals slowly dying to the common, fatal retrovirus, which is not contagious to humans. She finds the cats in streets and markets and has them tested for leukemia. Nearly all have the disease, as well as fleas, parasites and malnutrition. She takes in only adult cats to avoid spreading the disease to new generations. "My duty is to the cats that nobody cares about," she said.